GUWAHATI: The Assam government has urged the Centre to release funds to the tune of Rs 1088.19 crore for repair work and restoration of infrastructure and property damaged by floods and landslides during this year.
A high-level inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) on Wednesday concluded a two-day visit across various districts of Assam for an on-the-spot assessment of the flood and landslide damages during the current year.
The team, comprising seven members from different central ministries and led by Manish Tiwari, joint secretary, Union ministry of home affairs, met senior officials of Assam government here on Wednesday afternoon and discussed the damages and loss of the livelihood and property of the affected people in districts such as Bongaigaon, Chirang and Lakhimpur.
The representatives from the state government urged the central team to consider release of the funds under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for repair and restoration work against flood damages during the current year.
Further, the central team also suggested consideration of erosion as an item admissible under SDRF/NDRF in their report to the central government as river erosion adversely affects Assam every year.
Tiwari, in this regard, assured to submit the report with recommendations very soon to the central government.
The other six members of the team are Rupak Das Talukdar, deputy secretary, ministry of finance department of expenditure (FCD); Narendra Kumar, director, department of agriculture, cooperation and farmers welfare, DJD, Kolkata; Sanjay Kumar Singh, superintending engineer, ministry of Jal Shakti, CWC Complex, Guwahati; Pawan Kumar Gupta, deputy director, ministry of power, CEA, Sewa Bhawan, New Delhi; Adelbert Susngi, RO, ministry of road transport and highways, Guwahati, and Deep Shekhar Singhal, under-secretary (RE-VII), ministry of rural development.
The state government was represented by Avinash Joshi, principal secretary, state revenue and disaster management department; Gyanendra Tripathi; ASDMA chief executive officer among other officials.